


Companionship

by Frea_O



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Art appreciation, Female Friendship, Gen, Mentors, Museums, Surveillance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-10
Updated: 2014-01-10
Packaged: 2018-01-08 04:38:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1128455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frea_O/pseuds/Frea_O
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Most agents assumed you’d find the Cavalry at a bar. Maria Hill knew better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Companionship

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



Most agents assumed you’d find the Cavalry at a bar.

Maria Hill knew better.

The minute the Quinjet touched down, she nodded her thanks to Barton and disembarked, grateful that Stark had seen the wisdom in adding a SHIELD-pass-coded elevator that went straight down from the Stark Tower helipad to the street. It meant avoiding any awkward encounters with the CEO of Stark Industries on the way to the lobby, or worse, her madcap engineer of a boyfriend.

Maria only had so much patience for these things.

Dressed unobtrusively in jeans and a sweater, she was able to slip through the crowd of cosplayers and nerds outside the tower without drawing any notice. A couple of mouth-breathers shot her appreciative looks, but that was it. She hadn’t shot arrows at Chitauri rocket sleds or filled a catsuit to perfection while she gunned down rogue aliens or summoned thunder. Compared to the Avengers, she was nobody special.

She preferred it that way.

She cabbed it over to fifty-third and paid in cash, though she knew any spy worth his or her salt could easily track her down. By her count, there were still about two hours left before the museum closed, so with a completely blank face, she passed over her membership card and was admitted without any trouble into the Museum of Modern Art. None of the docents even gave her a second look. She had a pretty face—sharp, all angles, eyes as cold as the legend of her birth—but she’d tailored her look specifically to be unmemorable and she was very, very good at what she did.

But Melinda was better, so instead of seeking out her friend, Maria chose an exhibit at random and spent her time admiring Isa Genzkhen’s work, though she never quite understood any of it. She supposed she could have asked Steve, as he was slowly integrating himself into SHIELD (or becoming the boulder around which SHIELD was forced to flow, really, though Maria had no interest in pointing that out to Fury). He usually was paging through art textbooks in the break-room, brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of this new time period he’d found himself in and everything that had come between. Maria had never wanted to ask somebody what they saw in something until the day she’d come across him by accident and had seen nothing but sorrow in his eyes as he’d bent over a book about dime store artists and their iconic futuristic paintings.

Ever since, she hadn’t quite been able to look at art as something to be dismissed, though she wasn’t sure how she felt about the current exhibit.

“I’m getting too predictable,” said a voice behind her.

Maria didn’t turn. “Who’s the shadow?”

“You didn’t meet her yet?” Melinda’s voice held a modicum of surprise. “Coulson’s new pet.”

Amusement rose, though Maria’s lips barely twitched. “God save me from Coulson’s pets. This one doesn’t have fleas, does she?”

“No, and her bark is worse than her bite. I’m fixing that. It’s a faster process than I expected it to be.”

For a moment, they studied the sculpture together and Maria nearly broke out of her usual habit to ask Melinda what she saw in the mixed media presented. But that would probably come across as something a therapist might ask.

People didn’t come to her because they needed therapy. People usually came to her because they needed something else—with the exception of Melinda, whom Maria considered a friend.

Maria finally looked at her friend for the first time. She wanted to ask, _How is the field?_ or _Is Coulson okay?_ or _How have you been_?

Instead, she asked, “You didn’t lose her?”

Melinda smiled, but didn’t take her eyes from the sculpture. “Thought she could use some culture. There’s an exhibit upstairs I want to see before we hit Mastrano’s. Is it my turn to buy?”

“Mine,” Maria said, and she followed her friend to the stairway, with their shadow skulking behind them a good thirty feet. Maria was almost impressed. If she hadn’t had SHIELD training, Skye probably would have slipped her notice. Melinda must have been working with her. “How’s the bus?”

“We haven’t wrecked it lately,” Melinda said, and then they were quiet as they studied the artwork together for a little while, with Skye lurking behind.

“How long are we going to let her do that?” Maria asked.

Melinda smiled. “She thinks she’s doing so well. It would be a shame to let her in on it.”

“You’re cold. I like that.”

It was only when Maria ordered three beers at Mastrano’s instead of two, and put the third beer at the empty place, that their shadow joined them officially and Maria met the newest member of Coulson’s little team. But in the meantime, she passed an hour with her friend, looking at art that she would never understand, and communicating in the way she best knew how: through companionable silence.


End file.
